Rochester was ranked as the sixth 'most livable city' among 379
U.S. metropolitan
areas in the 25th edition (2007) of the Places Rated Almanac. The Rochester area also
received the top ranking for overall quality of life among U.S.
metros with populations of more than 1 million in a 2007 study by
Expansion Management
magazine. In the same study, Expansion Management rated
the area's public schools as sixth best nationwide.

The current mayor of Rochester is Robert
Duffy, who was previously the city's police chief.

Founding and early history

An aerial view of downtown Rochester
from 1938

On
November 8, 1803, a
100 acre (ca. 40 ha) tract in Western New
York along the Genesee
River was purchased by Col. Nathaniel Rochester, Maj.Charles
Carroll, and Col. William Fitzhugh, Jr. (1761-1839), all of
Hagerstown,
Maryland. The site was chosen because of three
cataracts on the
Genesee, offering great potential for water power. Beginning in
1811, and with a population of 15, the three founders surveyed the
land and laid out streets and tracts. In 1817, the Brown brothers
and other landowners joined their lands with the Hundred Acre Tract
to form the village of Rochesterville.

By 1821, Rochesterville was the seat of Monroe County. In 1823,
Rochesterville consisted of and 2,500 residents, and the Village of
Rochesterville became known as Rochester. Also in 1823, the
Erie Canal aqueduct over the Genesee River was completed, and the Erie Canal east to the
Hudson River was opened. In the
early 20th century, after the advent of railroad, the presence of the canal in the
center city became bothersome, and it was re-routed south of
Rochester. By 1830, Rochester's population was 9,200 and in 1834,
it was re-chartered as a city.

Rochester was first known as "The Young Lion of the West", and then
as the "Flour City". By 1838, Rochester was the largest
flour-producing city in the United States. Having doubled its
population in only ten years, Rochester became America's first
"boomtown." By the mid-nineteenth century,
as the center of the wheat-processing industry moved west, the city
became home to a booming nursery
business, giving rise to the city's second nickname, the "Flower City." Large and small
nurseries ringed the city, the most famous of which was the one
started by German immigrant George Ellwanger and Irish immigrant
Patrick Barry in 1840.

In 1847, Frederick Douglass
founded the abolitionist newspaper
The North Star
in Rochester. Douglass, a former slave and an antislavery speaker
and writer, gained a circulation of over 4,000 readers in the
United States, Europe and the Caribbean. The North Star
served as a forum for abolitionist views. The Douglass home burnt
down in 1872 , but a marker for it can be found in Highland Park
off South Avenue. The city was also home to abolitionist and
women's rights leader Susan B.Anthony. Anarchist Emma Goldman also lived and worked in Rochester
for several years, championing the cause of labor in Rochester
sweatshops.

Rochester's geography comes from the ice
sheets during the Pleistocene epoch.
The retreating ice sheets reached a standstill at what is now the
southern border of the city, melting at the same rate as they were
advancing, depositing sediment along the southern edge of the ice
mass. This created a line of hills, including (from west to east)
Mt. Hope, the hills of Highland Park, Pinnacle Hill, and Cobb's
Hill. Because the sediment of these hills was deposited into a
proglacial lake they are stratified and classified as a "kame delta." A brief retreat and readvance of the ice
sheet onto the delta piled unstratified (moraine) material there,
creating a rare hybrid structure called a "kame
moraine."

According to the City of Rochester, the city has of public streets,
of water mains, 44 vehicular and eight pedestrian bridges, 11
public libraries, two police stations (one for the east side, one
for the west), and 16 fire stations. The principal source
of water is Hemlock
Lake, which, with its watershed, is owned by the
city.Other water sources are Canadice Lake and Lake
Ontario. The 30-year annual average snowfall is The
mean July temperature is , and the mean February temperature is
.

Rochester lies in the Humid
continental climate zone, and has four distinct seasons, with
often cold and snowy winters. Autumn features brilliant foliage
colors, and summer sees comfortable temperatures that usually stay
in the low to mid 80s (upper 20s Celsius) and it can be quite
humid. Precipitation is plentiful year round.

Demographics

According to the 2005-2007 American Community Survey 3-Year
Estimates, the city's population was 50.3% White (41.0%
non-Hispanic White alone), 43.2% Black or African American (39.9%
non-Hispanic Black or African American alone), 0.9% American Indian
and Alaska Native, 3.3% Asian, 0.1% Native Hawaiian and Other
Pacific Islander, 5.4% from some other race and 3.0% from two or
more races. 13.6% of the total population were Hispanic or Latino
of any race. [19094]

There were 88,999 households of which 30.0% had children under 18
living with them, 25.1% were married
couples living together, 23.3% had a female householder with no
husband present, and 47.0% were non-families. 37.1% of all
households were made up of individuals and 9.2% had someone living
alone 65 or older. The average household size was 2.36 and the
average family size was 3.19.

Web site ePodunk estimates that Rochester has approximately 60%
more gay males and lesbians per capita than the national average
.

The city population was 28.1% under 18, 11.6% from 18 to 24, 32.2%
from 25 to 44, 18.1% from 45 to 64, and 10.0% who were 65 or older.
The median age was 31. For every 100 females there were 91.6 males.
For every 100 females 18 and over, there were 87.3 males.

The median income for a city household was $27,123, and the median
family income was $31,257. Males had a median income of $30,521,
versus $25,139 for females. The per
capita income for the city was $15,588. About 23.4% of families
and 25.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 37.5% of those
under age 18 and 15.4% of those age 65 or over.

Because of the high prevalence of imaging and optical science among
the industry and the universities, Rochester is known as the world
capital of imaging. The
Institute of Optics of the University of Rochester is ranked number one in the country , and the
Rochester
Institute of Technology has one of the best imaging science departments in
the country . In 2006, the University of Rochester became
the largest employer in the Rochester area, surpassing Kodak.

Food and beverage

One food product that Rochester calls its own is the "white hot," a variant of the hot dog made by the local Zweigle's company. Another local specialty is the "garbage
plate," first served at Nick Tahou Hots. Rochester was home to French's Mustard, whose address was 1 Mustard
Street.

National frozen food manufacturer Birds
Eye is headquartered in suburban Rochester. The Ragú brand of pasta sauce was originally produced
in Rochester, and the Francesco Rinaldi pasta sauce is manufactured
in Rochester. Barilla and Kraft Foods have food manufacturing plants in
nearby Livingston County, in the Village of Avon. Heluva Good Cheeses are in nearby Wayne County
and Seneca Foods are in nearby Marion,
Wayne County and Mount Morris, Livingston County,.

The Rochester area is the birthplace of the Wegmans Grocery store chain, which has
locations throughout the Northeast and Northern Virginia. In 2005,
Wegmans was ranked the best company in America to work for by
Fortune magazine; it has
been ranked the best grocery store in America by Consumer Reports and Food Network.

More recently, however, the height of the proposed Paetec building
has shrunk to approximately 8-12 stories, reflecting the realities
of the real estate market for leaseable office space in downtown
Rochester.

Government

Rochester is governed by a mayor and city council consisting of 4
district members and 5 at-large members . The city's police
department is the Rochester
Police Department.

Neighborhood Empowerment Team

Enforcement of property code violations in Rochester is currently
handled by the Neighborhood Empowerment Team, or NET. Rather than
utilizing a centralized code enforcement office as most cities do,
each neighborhood in Rochester is assigned its own NET office,
leading to considerable discrepancies in the manner and severity of
enforcement. On July 16, 2008, it was announced that two of the NET
offices would be closed, and another one relocated, due to the high
cost and low value of operating the decentralized network.

Joseph Avenue

Extending across much of the north-central cityscape of Rochester,
now including parts of the old Hudson Avenue and North Clinton
neighborhoods, is the Joseph Avenue community. Also known as Polish
Town or simply Avenue D and today almost entirely African American,
this community suffered being the center of the 1964 riots ,. The
riots did produce some benefits in the long run: the north-central
area has been the site of ongoing urban renewal projects since the
late 1960s, and, as noted by "JULY ’64" filmmakers Carvin Eison and
Chris Christopher, inspired the developent of such important
African American organizations as The Urban League of Rochester as
well as Rochester’s first anti-poverty organization (Action for a
Better Community), and black community activist organization
Freedom, Integration, Honor, God, Today (F.I.G.H.T.). However, the
neighborhood is still considered the most dangerous part of
Rochester and is blighted by crime, drugs and gang activity..

Lyell Avenue

Once an Italian-American neighborhood, now a rainbow of many
ethnicities , there have been recent efforts by community
organizations to improve the quality of life in this
neighborhood.

19th Ward

The 19th Ward is a southwest neighborhood bordered by Genesee
Street, West Avenue, the Erie Canal, and is across the river from
the University of Rochester. Now known by its slogan "Urban by
Choice," in the early 1800s the area was known as Castletown and by
1930 was a booming residential area for doctors, lawyers, and
skilled workers; it includes the once-prestigious Sibley Tract
development. Homes in the neighborhood typically have gumwood trim,
leaded glass, fireplaces, hardwood floors, and open porches. The
19th Ward has had an active community association since 1965, and
is known for its cultural diversity . The current "Brooks Landing"
development is an attempt to bring new economic development to the
community.

Browncroft

The Browncroft neighborhood is a hidden gem. Built on the former
nursery grounds of the Elwanger and Barry nursery, these homes are
grand and well preserved. The business district situated on Winton
Rd has an eclectic mix of restaurants and shops. Homes found on
Dorchester, Gramercy Park, Corwin, and Windemere have beautiful
architecture.

Charlotte

Charlotte (shar-LOT) is a lake front community in Rochester
bordering Lake
Ontario. It is home to Ontario Beach Park, commonly known as
Charlotte Beach, which is a popular summer destination for
Rochesterians. A new terminal was built in 2004 for the Rochester-to-Toronto ferry service and
was later sold after the ferry ceased operations in 2005. The
terminal still exists, housing a burger joint, sushi restaurant,
and ice cream parlor.

Corn Hill

The Corn Hill neighborhood near downtown is one of the nation's
best preserved Victorian neighborhoods and a center for art. It is
also home to Corn Hill Landing, a shopping and housing strip
located on the Genesee River. The annual Corn Hill Art Festival, a
two day event held the weekend after the 4th of July, is one of the
city's most popular gatherings for art display.

Upper Monroe

Located less than one and one-half miles from downtown, Upper
Monroe encompasses 17 streets with 1400 households and
approximately 3300 residents. Cobbs Hill Park, with its beautiful
reservoir, tennis courts and athletic fields, forms the
southeastern boundary of this neighborhood. Highland Park, world
renown for its annual Lilac Festival, also is within walking
distance. The Upper Monroe Neighborhood Association (UMNA) is a
not-for-profit advocacy group representing the residents and
property owners of the Upper Monroe neighborhood. Their goals are
to ascertain the needs and concerns of the neighborhood and take
positive action to address those needs and concerns. The
neighborhood is also home to a number of small, local businesses
including: Hardpact, Huey's Hair Company, Monty's Krown, Jeremiah's
Tavern, and Park Ave. Pets.

East End

The East End is a residential neighborhood in Downtown Rochester
but also the main nightlife district. The Eastman
Theatre and the Eastman School of Music are in the East End, along with the Little
Theatre, an independent film theatre and many clubs, bars
and high-end restaurants.

Park Avenue and the Neighborhood of the Arts

Lining the streets of Park Avenue are cafes, shops, pubs and
restaurants. In a broader view, the total area surrounding
University Avenue—known as the Neighborhood of the Arts—is one of
the most culture and art-rich sections of the city. Located here are the
Village Gate, Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester Museum and Science
Center, Rochester Public Market, ARTWalk, George
Eastman House, and high-end residential streets such as Granger
Drive, East Boulevard, Douglas Road, Westminster Street, and
Berkeley Street.

Plymouth-Exchange

Also known by the abbreviation PLEX, the Plymouth-Exchange
neighborhood serves its purpose by providing affordable housing for
lower income families. Also home to many University
of Rochester students, both grad and undergrad, it has a richly
knit community and an active neighborhood association.

South Wedge

The South Wedge neighborhood dates back to 1827, prior to the
incorporation of Rochester as a city.. The area is bordered by
Byron street in the north, South Clinton avenue and Interstate 490 on its east,
Highland Park on its south, and The Genesee River on the west.
Construction of the Erie Canal (the old
canal bed which went by the neighborhood is now used by Interstate
490) brought workers to the area, who set up camps for the months
that it took to complete this section of the canal. This racially
integrated neighborhood is one of the neighborhoods in Rochester
currently undergoing the process of gentrification, partially due
to a recent increase in homeownership in the area..A lot of young
people live in this area.

Swillburg

This pie-shaped piece of the city is bordered by S. Clinton Avenue,
Field St, and Interstate 490. The neighborhood received its moniker
when a 19th century Rochester pig farmer utilized the area to
collect swill for his swine. The neighborhood association
humorously honors its roots by using street signs featuring the
Swillburg Pig. The area has one of the highest rates of
homeownership in the city and is currently undergoing
gentrification as well.

Marketview Heights

Running east from Union Street just north of Main Street,
Marketview Heights is best known as the location of the Public
Market, which offers a variety of groceries and other goods from
marketeers from farms and shops from surrounding areas, primarily
on the week-ends.

Homestead Heights

Homestead Heights is located in north-east Rochester. It is
bordered on the west by Goodman Street, on the north by Clifford
Avenue, on the south by Bay Street, and on the east by Culver Road,
which is also the border between the city and the town of
Irondequoit. The neighborhood is a mix of residential and
commercial. Real estate values are higher on the eastern end of the
neighborhood near the Irondequoit border. The neighborhood is
approximately 2-2 1/4 miles west of the Irondequoit Bay.

Education

The City of Rochester is served by the Rochester City School
District which encompasses all public primary and secondary
education. The district is governed by a popularly elected
seven-member Board of Education. There are also parochial and
private primary and secondary schools located within the
city.

Colleges and Universities

Education is one of Rochester's primary economic areas . The city
and its suburbs are home to a number of colleges and
universities:

RIT is among the top colleges and universities in the nation for
programs in the fine arts, placing in the top 10 for many of the
college's programs, including Photography (3rd), Glass art (2nd),
Industrial design (8th) and others. RIT's undergraduate programs
have been featured as one of nation's best in the Princeton Review, and its undergraduate
engineering programs have been ranked in the top 70 in the country
by the U.S.News & World Report.

Monroe Community College

Monroe Community College,
the largest community college in Upstate New York, has had the top ranking
community college athletic program two years in a row and was rated
as the tenth best associates
degree producing two year college by Community College Week. MCC has four
campuses: the Damon City Campus, the main
Brighton Campus which houses the Mercer
Gallery, the Applied Technologies Center,
and the Public Safety Training Facility.

Nightlife

Rochester's East End, within downtown, is well known throughout the
area for being a center of late-night activity. It gets its name
for being the stopping point for East Avenue, and both East and the
surrounding streets are crowded with bars, nightclubs, coffee shops
and high-end restaurants. The Eastman School of Music, one of the top musical institutes in the nation,
is also located within the neighborhood along with its
auditorium.The Eastman Theatre now plays host to the Rochester Philharmonic
Orchestra and other musical/drama events. Scattered around
the city are also pockets of restaurants, bars and nightclubs.
Notable areas include the South Wedge, St. Paul Quarter and Monroe
Avenue. The Village Gate is a well known multiuse building/plaza
near University Avenue, within which several restaurants and bars
are located.There are venues where music can be heard scattered all
around the city. Live music is important to the nightlife.

The city has 13 full-time recreation centers, 19 swimming programs,
3 artificial ice rinks, 66 softball/baseball fields, 47 tennis
courts, 5 football fields, 7 soccer fields, and 43 outdoor
basketball courts. As a legacy of its time as "The Flower City",
Rochester hosts a Lilac
Festival for ten days every May, when nearly 400 varieties of
lilacs bloom, and 100,000 visitors arrive.

Near Rochester

Twenty miles southwest of Rochester, the Genesee Country Village and
Museum in Mumford, a hamlet in the town of Wheatland, contains
a model historic village preserving local architecture, a nature
center, model gardens, and sporting, art and carriage museums.
South of
Rochester, the "Grand Canyon of the East" 14,350 acre Letchworth
State Park has cliffs up to high and waterfalls up to
high.South and Southeast of Rochester, the
glacially formed, Finger
Lakes Region has a wine industry and many lakes and
waterfalls spread across 14 counties: Cayuga, Chemung, Cortland,
Livingston, Monroe, Onondaga, Ontario, Schuyler, Seneca, Steuben,
Tioga, Tompkins, Waynes, and Yates.

Festivals

Rochester
has many festivals in late spring and summer, including the
Rochester
International Jazz Festival established in 2002, the Corn Hill
Festival (arts, crafts, and food in this Third Ward neighborhood),
the Rochester-High
Falls International Film Festival held at the George
Eastman House's Dryden Theatre and
the Little
Theatre downtown), ImageOut, The Rochester Lesbian &
Gay Film & Video Festival held at the Little Theatre,
Clothesline Art Festival (artists from the region display their
works on the grounds of the Memorial Art Gallery), Park Avenue Merchants Festival, Lilac Festival at Highland
Park, St. Patrick's Day parade (March), Rose Festival at
Maplewood Park, Irish festival (September), two Greek festivals -
one on East Avenue (in June) and one on South Avenue (in
September), Gay Pride Festival (July), Puerto Rican
Festival(August), Rochester Music Festival, and the Cold Rush
Winter Celebration (celebrating winter sports in the Rochester
area).In the summer, especially on the Fourth of July, downtown
after dark is lit with fireworks and a laser show at the High
Falls venue. The most popular of these is
undoubtably the Lilac festival, which attracts many from areas
outside of Rochester and draws on average 500,000 people every
year.

Media

The Democrat and
Chronicle is Rochester's main daily newspaper. The
Daily Record, a legal, real estate and business daily, has
published Monday through Friday since 1908. Insider magazine (owned
by the Democrat and Chronicle), "City" newspaper and the "Freetime"
entertainment magazine are free, weekly publications. Rochester
Business Journal is the weekly business paper of record. "The
Good Life Magazine" is a free bi-monthly publication. There is also
a grassroots, democratically-run, Independent Media Center called
Rochester Indymedia. Media
addressing the needs of Rochester's large African American
population include "About... time", and "Minority Report" ) (which
has an associated news journal for the area's Latin American
population, "La Voz" ).

Sports

Rochester was named the top minor league sports market in the
country by Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal in July
2005, the number 10 "best golf city" in America by Golf
Magazine in 2007,and the fifth-best "sports town" in the
country by Scarborough
Research in September
2008http://www.rbj.net/fullarticle.cfm?sdid=75291.

Professional sports

Although Rochester is home territory of the Buffalo Bills and the Buffalo Sabres, and the Sabres are further
tied to Rochester through their owner, Rochester billionaire
Tom Golisano, Rochester has several
professional sports teams of its own:

College sports

Almost all area college sports are played at the NCAA Division III level. An exception is the
RIT men's ice hockey team, which moved up to the
Division I level in 2005.Hobart College, an hour
away from Rochester in Geneva, has a Division I men's lacrosse team.

Rochester is the largest Metropolitan Statistical Area in the U.S.
which does not include at least one college or university
participating at the NCAA Division 1 level in all sports.

Club Sports

Rochester is home to two men's rugby
teams, the Rochester Aardvarks
and the Rochester Colonials.
Both have long histories, with the Aardvarks celebrating their 40th
anniversary in 2006, and the Rochester Colonials celebrating 30
years upcoming in 2010. The Aardvarks are one of the few rugby teams
in the country to own its own pitch: Aardvark Park in Henrietta,
New York. The Aardvarks and the Colonials both have
hosted local and state-wide tournaments and the Rochester Colonials
hosted the 2007 USA Rugby National Collegiate All-Star
Championships, Rochester's first national tournament, as well as
the 2009 NYS Rugby Upstates Tournament and the 2009 New York State
High School Rugby Championships. Both teams participate in the
annual Saranac CAN-AM
rugby tournament in Saranac NY in early August. Rochester also
has a Women's Rugby club, the Rochester Renegades, who celebrated
their 20th anniversary in 2008. The Renegades started the New York
State Rugby Women's Division.

The Rochester Bicycling Club is a social and fitness bicycling
club.

Rochester is also home to Rochester Rhythm the three time champions
of the American Extreme Paintball League or AXBL.

Mass transit

Amtrak (passenger) and freight lines provide
rail service to Rochester. Rochester has intercity and
transcontinental bus service via Greyhound and Trailways.

Local bus service in Rochester and its county suburbs is provided
by the Rochester-Genesee
Regional Transportation Authority (RGRTA) via its Regional
Transit Service (RTS) subsidiary. RTS also provides suburban
service outside the immediate Rochester area and runs smaller
transportation systems in outlying counties, such as WATS (Wayne
Area Transportation System).

From 1927 to 1957, Rochester had a light
rail underground transit system called the Rochester Subway. It was the smallest city
in the world to have one. There are proposals to put in a new
system, possibly using some of the old tunnels. One includes
converting the Broad Street bridge tunnel—the former canal
aqueduct—into an underground pedestrian walkway, which would also
include a Rochester Transportation Museum, and a tram system.

The former canal and subway tunnels have become a source of
controversy. Many city homeless use the tunnels for shelter, and a
few areas near tunnel entrances have gained the reputation as being
dangerous. The city has considered multiple solutions for the space
including recreating a canal way, putting the subway system back in
or filling the tunnels entirely. The plan to fill the tunnels in
has generated criticism as the cost of filling would be comparable
to restoring the subway .

The Broad Street bridge over the Genesee that the subway used still
retains the lower track level.

Main Street looking east

Major highways and roads that serve the Greater Rochester
Area

There are three exits off the New
York State Thruway (Interstate 90)
that serve Rochester. Rochester has an extensive freeway (expressway)
system which connects all parts of the city and the city with the
Thruway. During the Thruway's construction, a disagreement between
the governor of New York and mayor of Rochester resulted in a
bypass of downtown Rochester, leaving the city struggling for
growth.

Rochester's expressway system, conceived in the 1950s, was designed
as two concentric circles with feeder expressways from the west,
south and east. The system allows for quick travel within the
metropolitan area and a lack of the traffic gridlock typically
found in cities of comparable size; in part this is because the
system was designed to accommodate an anticipated year-2000 metro
population of 5 million, whereas the present-day population is just
over one million.

I-590 runs south-north through Rochester's eastern suburbs. Its
southern end is at I-390, while the
northern end is at I-490;
the highway continues north to the shore of Lake Ontario as
NY-590.

In
decreasing usage is the term "Can of Worms", referring to the previously dangerous
at-grade intersection of Interstate 490 and expressway
NY-590 on the eastern edge
of the Rochester city limits, bordering the suburb of Brighton. In the 1980s, a multimillion dollar project
created a system of overpasses and ramps that reduced the danger
but resulted in the loss of certain exits.

NY
104 - Just east of the NY 590 interchange, NY 104 becomes the
Irondequoit-Wayne County Expressway and crosses the Irondequoit
Bay Bridge. On the other side of the Bay Bridge, in the
town of Webster, NY 104 has exits before returning to an at-grade
highway at Basket Road.

NY 390 is an extension of Interstate 390 from the I-390/I-490
interchange in Gates. The northern terminus is at the Lake Ontario
State Parkway in Greece, less than a mile from the Lake Ontario
shoreline.

NY 590 is a limited-access extension of Interstate 590 at runs
from an interchange between Interstate 490 and I-590 on the
Brighton/Rochester border. The northern terminus is at Culver Road
in Irondequoit, near Sea Breeze (the western shore of Irondequoit
Bay at Lake Ontario).

Crime

Notable citizens

Sister cities

Rochester has eleven sister cities, as
designated by Sister Cities
International. They are all dedicated by a branched concrete
walkway over the Genesee River, dubbed the Sister Cities Bridge
(known as the Frank and Janet Lamb Bridge since October
2006):